A Southwest Airlines plane passes overhead of the crash site off Telephone Road.

A Southwest Airlines plane passes overhead of the crash site off Telephone Road.

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Work crews meticulously gathered up every piece of glass or metal from the crash site to be sent with the aircraft.

Work crews meticulously gathered up every piece of glass or metal from the crash site to be sent with the aircraft.

Photo: Kristi Nix

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Pieces of aircraft and crash debris were put on a trailer to be taken to a secure storage facility for investigation on Thursday.

Pieces of aircraft and crash debris were put on a trailer to be taken to a secure storage facility for investigation on Thursday.

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Tom Latson, an air safety investigation from the NTSB gave reporters an update on the plane crash near Hobby Airport.

Tom Latson, an air safety investigation from the NTSB gave reporters an update on the plane crash near Hobby Airport.

Photo: Kristi Nix

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Crash investigators on the scene Thursday.

Crash investigators on the scene Thursday.

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Investigators poring over crash details

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Investigators released new information on Friday (June 10) related to a recent plane crash near Hobby Airport.

“The aircraft departed from Norman, Okla. at 10 a.m. on Thursday and arrived at Hobby Airport just before 1 p.m.,” Tom Latson, an air safety investigator from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) told reporters.

Air traffic controllers told the pilot twice to circle around because the plane was coming in “too high.. For some reason, the pilot didn’t feel comfortable and radioed that she was circling the airport a third time.

“During this approach, several witnesses reported seeing the aircraft flying low and slow,” Latson said. Then suddenly the plane went into a nose dive and crashed into a parked car outside the Ace Hardware store located at 6800 Telephone Road, just northwest of Hobby Airport.

The plane narrowly missed a store full of customers and a propane tank outside the store. No one was in the car at the time and no one on the ground was injured. But, all three passengers in the plane were killed instantly.

Officials from the Moore Police Department have identified the victims, identified as Dana Gray, who was the pilot, her husband Tony and his brother Jerry Gray. The three victims were flying to Houston to visit their father who is undergoing treatments at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.

“A video of the crash from a security camera showed the aircraft was in a flat spin at the moment of the impact,” Latson said.

The plane was described as a 2012 model Cirrus SR-20 registered to a corporation in Normal, Okla.

Immediately following the crash, officials from Hobby Airport alerted the Houston Fire Department and first responders arrived on the scene quickly. There was no fire associated with the crash.

“During the impact sequence, the ballistic rocket motor for the parachute recovery system deployed but the parachute did not,” Latson said.

At 8 a.m. on Friday, Latson and a team of investigators from NTSB, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Houston Fire Department returned to the scene to study the wreckage and gather information. The plane was disassembled and workers meticulously gathered the wreckage and put it on a trailer to be transported to a secure storage facility located near Dallas.

“We have completed out initial investigation and taken photographs of the plane and the scene,” Latson told reporters. “I have also retrieved several pieces of non-volatile memory from the plane that will show the speed, direction and altitude of the plane during the final moments before the crash. I’ll begin reviewing that information in the coming weeks.”

Latson and other investigators will also go to the storage facility to examine the aircraft and conduct a complete teardown of the engine. A factual report detailing the circumstances related to the crash will be available online next week on the NTSB website. Within six months to a year, a more detailed report will be made available online and a probable cause statement will be released three to four months later that will outline what caused the crash.

“If there are any witnesses that saw this aircraft in flight, especially just before the accident occurred, please contact the NTSB at witness@ntsb.gov,” Latson said.